Victims of a Marist Brother responsible for the sexual abuse of students over 15 years have faced the elderly perpetrator in a Sydney court.
One by one the adult men detailed the impacts the horrific abuse had on their lives as a frail Francis William Cable, also known as Brother Romuald, sat in the dock on Friday.
The 83-year-old, who taught at Marist Brothers schools in the NSW Hunter region and Sydney, is being sentenced for 25 offences committed between 1960 and 1974.
One victim, who Cable called the "anti-christ", detailed the lasting impacts of his abuse and revealed he had rinsed his mouth with bleach.
"I now think of myself as the lowest form of life, the dirt beneath people's feet," he wrote in a statement read out in court.
He recalled bleeding, sometimes for days, as a result of Cable's abuse, which took away his "innocence and dignity".
Nightmares and fear were constant reminders of his treatment as a school boy.
"I always have this fear I will be attacked by Marist brothers and raped again," he said.
Another man recalled the first time Cable put his hand inside his swimmers as a student.
"I was confused as to why an adult would want to do this to a pre-pubescent boy," he told the court.
Another said he turned into an alcoholic, as the bottle was the only way he could stop thinking of Cable.
"I would just lay in the park wishing I was dead, still hating my father for not taking me out of that school," he wrote in a statement read out in court.
Cable, wearing prison greens and entering the court with a walking frame, did not show any emotion as the victim impact statements were read out.
The hearing continues.
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